


Credibility

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen, Sentinel Thursday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-30
Updated: 2016-12-30
Packaged: 2018-09-13 11:34:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9121678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: Jm is not happy about the credibility of a TV cop show





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sentinel Thursday prompt 'belief/disbelief'

 

Credibility

by  Bluewolf

As the TV cop drama finished, Jim shook his head. "I've seen some badly developed shows over the years, but I don't think I've ever seen such a load of contrived crap as there was in that one!"

Blair glanced at him.

"Nobody interviewing witnesses, evidence landing on the detective's desk out of thin air, bad guys whose middle name is 'stupid'..."

"Well, we know that some of them are pretty stupid," Blair offered. "And you could call info from a snitch appearing 'out of thin air' because you don't know where they got it... "

"Totally unbelievable story lines!" Jim muttered.

"Jim. It's TV - "

"I still expect a plot to be credible and the story's development to make sense."

"They have an hour to work out something that in real life might take days - months - years, even. Think of the number of cold cases that are solved years later because of new developments in something like DNA evidence. That's why it's called 'the willing suspension of disbelief' when you watch something. You have to be prepared to forget the 'real life credibility' factor and accept it for what it is - entertainment. It's not meant to reflect total reality even when it touches on real life concerns. A documentary, now - that _is_ showing things as they really are."

Jim growled something totally indecipherable.

Blair grinned. "Yeah, I know. You don't ever suspend disbelief, willingly or unwillingly."

"There are some things you can't help but disbelieve," Jim repeated, more audibly.

"Unless you experience them," Blair murmured. "If someone had said to you in the year before we met anything about heightened senses or spirit animals, what would you have replied?"

Jim was silent for a moment, then went on obstinately, "Some things you just can't experience, no matter how much you believe you can."

"Okay, I grant you I couldn't jump out of the window, fly to the building opposite and land safely on its roof - but if I told someone on another planet that it was possible? They wouldn't believe me, but that doesn't mean it's impossible, it's just something they haven't encountered - "

"And aren't likely to!"

" - and won't while they live on that planet because birds haven't evolved there. The number of times explorers were disbelieved, two, three hundred years ago, when they reported things they'd seen in foreign lands – creatures science finally proved did exist... "

"Like nobody believed Burton when he wrote about sentinels?" Jim asked.

Blair nodded. "And if we were to tell Rafe and Brown and Joel and the others about your senses, wouldn't that be their first reaction until you proved it?"

"Megan believed it... "

"But she'd heard about sentinels back in Australia, so it wasn't a foreign concept to her."

Jim was silent for a moment, before saying, "You still haven't changed my mind about the lack of credibility in some TV shows. If there was one about a sentinel, that would be built into the show's background. You could have him solving crimes because of what he could see or hear, in a setup where everyone knew about his abilities. But having someone walking into the Captain's office and saying something like, 'We heard that Anderson's killer was seen at the docks'... That's floating down from mid air. You mentioned snitches. 'Harry's snitch told him that Anderson's killer has been seen at the docks' would be okay, only two or three words different, but the viewer knows where the information has come from even if we don't know where Harry's snitch got the info and it's the only time he's mentioned in a thousand-episode-long show."

Blair nodded in acceptance, before adding, "Sometimes things have to be disbelieved to be seen."

"Huh?"

"Something Naomi used to say. But seriously? I'm not sure I ever knew exactly what she meant."

 


End file.
